Global Future of Development Spring 2015 Report

Over the course of four semesters, Global Futures invited members of the Georgetown community to undertake innovative teaching, research, and dialogue with world leaders around the pressing global issues of development, governance, security, and the environment.

In its inaugural spring 2015 semester, Global Futures addressed the topic of “The Global Future of Development.” A centerpiece of the semester was a partnership with the World Bank and a series of major lectures by World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Kaushik Basu on topics ranging from pandemics and climate change to the shifting frontiers of development economics.

In collaboration with faculty and students from Georgetown’s international development programs in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and McCourt School of Public Policy, the Global Futures Initiative supported a range of other events over the course of the semester, including talks by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and by Rajiv Shah, former administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development. A culminating roundtable at the World Bank featured Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

The Initiative built on several programmatic elements developed during the spring of 2015: a Global Future(s) Curriculum Studio for innovative courses around global issues; a Global Futures fellows program, which gave talented students an opportunity to help plan and participate in high-level Initiative activities; a collaborative grants program for faculty designed to deepen research connections with global partners; and a Global Futures blog featuring scholars and students around the world.